Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, including police officers and civilians, as attacks continue despite a ceasefire agreement brokered last year, according to medical sources. The attacks included a strike on a police vehicle in Khan Younis, which killed eight people, and another in Gaza City that killed two officers.

Calls for International Intervention

Gaza’s Ministry of Interior called on the international community to intervene and end the Israeli targeting of local police forces working to restore security in civilian areas. The ministry said the attack in Khan Younis occurred after security forces intervened to break up a fight in the area.

“The continued silence of international organisations … regarding the targeting of civilian police officers constitutes complicity with the Israeli occupation, encouraging it to commit further crimes against a civilian institution protected under international law,” the ministry said. “We emphasise that the police force provides services to citizens in the Gaza Strip across various aspects of daily life. There is absolutely no justification for targeting it or killing its personnel.”

Systemic Attacks on Police

Medical sources said Israel has been systematically killing police officers in Gaza, particularly as it aligns with criminal gangs in the occupied territory. During its military campaign, which started in October 2023, the Israeli military regularly targeted officers securing aid convoys, leading to intensified looting and deepening the hunger crisis in the territory.

A ceasefire, brokered by former U.S. President Donald Trump, came into effect in October 2024. While the truce reduced the intensity of the Israeli bombardment, attacks have continued. Since the ceasefire was announced, Israel has killed at least 984 people and injured 2,235 others, according to health authorities. Just this week, Israeli strikes killed five people, including three children, on Wednesday.

Escalation and International Response

The overall death toll in the conflict has surpassed 72,500, with more than 172,000 others injured. Thousands of missing people are believed to be dead and buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. The number of confirmed casualties represents more than 7 percent of the enclave’s population of two million people. The Israeli assault also turned most of Gaza’s structures into piles of rubble.

Leading rights groups and United Nations investigators have concluded that the Israeli military campaign amounts to genocide: an effort to destroy the Palestinian people. Under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has continued to bomb Gaza while simultaneously attacking south Lebanon, violating a separate truce with Hezbollah.

Hamas on Friday called the deadly attacks in Gaza part of the Israeli government’s “unmatched bloody, fascist approach.” “This escalation … by the government of the war criminal Netanyahu represents a clear failure of the role of the mediators and guarantors [of the ceasefire] and the international community to quell the barbaric Zionist killing machine,” it said.

More than six months into the ceasefire, Trump has struggled to implement the 12-point plan on which the truce was based. Israel continues to occupy most of Gaza. Reconstruction in the territory has not begun. An international security force envisioned by the agreement has not been formed. In February, Trump convened his so-called Board of Peace that is supposed to govern Gaza through a council of Palestinian technocrats, but it is not clear when or how these forces will take over government agencies in the territory.